Total and Chevron pulling up stakes in Myanmar might be in the news but worldwide hotel chain Accor is aiming to hang in, according to a statement, aware of the long-term tourism potential and expressing concern about the employment of their staff.

“The group entered Burma with the hope of bringing positive change to the people. It is in this spirit that we maintain our presence,” says Accor in a statement, noting to has financially supported and vaccinated its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the dramatic drop in customers turning up on their doorstep in the wake of the February 2021 coup.

Accor has a substantial Myanmar footprint, operating nine hotels in the country through management contracts with local investors who employ total of 1,000 staff.

Accor arrived on the cusp of Myanmar rolling out the red carpet for foreign investors in 2010s, stepping in earlier than its American rivals in this – at that time - rapidly growing tourism and business destination.

According to The Times Hub, two high-end Accor hotels, in Yangon and Naypyidaw, in particular raise questions as their owner is businessman Zaw Zaw, one of the most powerful in the country at the time of the partnership, in 2013. He made his fortune thanks to his relations with the military power, granting himself concessions, import licenses and public works. Information that Accor could not ignore in 2013, Zaw Zaw and Max Myanmar being widely quoted in US diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks three years earlier, and subject to Treasury sanctions until 2016.

These suspicions earned him the failure of an attempt to merge with a Singaporean group, rejected by the local regulator in 2013, at the very moment when Accor entered into a partnership with it. The absence of sanctions targeting Zaw Zaw today justifies maintaining the contract, according to the group, at the time less attentive to the pedigree of its partner, notes The Times Hub.

Zaw Zaw, who had sidled up to civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during her five-year tenure was questioned by the military junta in the wake of the coup, and appears to be walking a tightrope, though he remains the president of the Myanmar Football Federation.

Hotels and guesthouses in Myanmar have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the February 2021 coup that have brought an end to foreign tourist traffic and most local tourism business.